Upton tenant: Landlord's hidden camera "just shocking, unreal"

Wednesday

Oct 10, 2012 at 6:00 AMOct 10, 2012 at 8:17 PM

An Upton landlord charged with secretly videotaping a tenant in her bathroom was ordered by a judge today to turn in his keys and stay away from the building for a year. "We're wondering how long this has been going on," a teary Michelle Stoddard said this morning. "We're wondering if there were any other cameras in any of the other rooms.'

By Bill Fortier TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

Michelle L. Stoddard said he was in the bathroom getting ready for work yesterday morning when she heard her dog growl at a heating vent in the bathroom floor of her apartment at 76B Main St. in Upton.

Ms. Stoddard, 41, said she saw a black tube with a clear lens sticking through the vent.

She took a closer look and saw that it was a camera, and behind it, part of the basement.

She grabbed the base of the tube in an effort to retrieve it, and said when she did, she felt it being forcefully pulled back down into the basement.

Ms. Stoddard, who lives in the apartment with her daughter, Miranda S. Levasseur, 17, and Christine A. Safstrom, 41, called Upton police. In the basement, the responding officer saw a black tube, a clear lens and a small camera directly below the vent, and asked landlord James E. Hill, 42, of 76A Hill St. if he knew anything about the camera.

Mr. Hill told police he had recently bought the camera to perform engine work on his motorcycle and was testing it on various objects in the house. He said he used the camera to look down sink drains and dryer vents when he got the idea to insert the camera into the bathroom vent.

“Hill said he did not have the intention of viewing anyone,” a police narrative on file in Milford District Court said. He said the only other camera in his home is one he keeps in the living room to watch his dog when he isn’t home.

The officers were not impressed with his explanation. They arrested Mr. Hill on charges of photographing an unsuspecting nude person, breaking and entering for a misdemeanor, and being a disorderly person. He is scheduled for arraignment tomorrow morning in Milford District Court.

At a 15-minute hearing today, Judge Robert B. Calagione ordered Mr. Hill to turn in his keys to the apartment and stay away from it and from the Meltzer Eye Care Center, 33 Lincoln St., Worcester, where the three women work, until 4 p.m. Oct. 10, 2013. He was placed on paid leave yesterday from his job with the Information Services Department at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center.

He is out on $5,000 cash bail pending his arraignment tomorrow, court officials said.

“We feel so violated,” Ms. Stoddard said today before the court hearing.

The police report said Ms. Stoddard believes that Mr. Hill may also have been looking at her through a wall next to her bedroom. Investigators noticed a loose board right next to the bed, the police report said.

“We’re in complete shock,” said Ms. Safstrom. “We’re panic stricken. We can’t believe that something like this is happening.”

Ms. Stoddard said she is very upset that Mr. Hill may have seen her naked in the bathroom, which until Tuesday, she said, was one of her favorite places.

“We just feel completely violated,” she said as tears filled her eyes.

All three women, who have lived in the apartment for about a month, said they wondered how long Mr. Hill may have been watching them and videotaping them.

“It’s shocking, it’s unreal,” Ms. Stoddard said. She said she cried herself to sleep last night. “Last night was a really tough night,” she said.

“It’s an awful feeling when you don’t feel safe in your own house,” added Ms. Safstrom.

Besides her job with Meltzer, Ms. Safstrom also works at the Danceworks Academy in Upton. Ms. Levasseur is a student at Nipmuc Regional High School in Upton.

Among the items seized by police were a 35 mm camera, several laptop computers, five external hard drives, and a wireless receiver, police said.